Where did you dive this weekend?

[DiverInAk]

Just wondering who dove this past weekend and how was your dive?

It was 4 deg F when I left my house at 9am. At least it's light out at 9am now. After picking up my buddy we made the rest of the drive to the Anton Anderson tunnel with 5 minutes to spare.. You can take a Virtual Drive if you like.

This gets us to the dive site, Whittier Alaska. Being near the ocean, the air was now a balmy 32 degrees and my Cobra reported the water on both dives at 37. It really is a treat when it's in the 30's, as there are no facilities at the dive site, except for a place to park your car and the concrete boat ramp to ease your entry.

We had a couple of excellent dives, although I missed seeing the wolf eels on BOTH dives. Oh well. That's as good as an excuse as any to go diving again. Visibility was not bad, about 30 to 40 feet.

There were the typical nudibranchs, rock fish and crustaceans. And there were only 6 other divers that showed up that day. It was really a nice Saturday.

So where did you dive this weekend?

 

[DivingGal]

was my bathtub.... alas, no "real" diving for me for awhile. I just have pool sessions for OW classes. I am, however, counting the days before I head to Florida (for a conference hehehe, and a wee bit of diving) in March.

Just too many CADs divers (me included) with all the "hard" water

 

[Rick Murchison]

Very little in the way of critters - lots of eels in the cavern was about it.
But it was wet, and it was fun.
Rick

 

[ages]

No pleasure dives this weekend....spent my diving in evidence recovery for a crime commited in the harbors....man there is no place less exciting than diving amoung dumped batteries, mountains of fishing line, etc. ages

 

[Dee]

I had an exciting dive in the dive shop pool! First time in the water since late October. I finally got to try out the new digital camera and housing...amazing! And also to see if the pinched nerve in my neck is recovered enough to dive on the March trip to Roatan.

Hey...it's better n' nuthin'!

 

[Tavi]

I was in the pool too. The first time in the water since November.
My Wife, Son and I did a bouyancy workshop. Had a lot of fun. Afterwards we had pizza at the shop, and my son bought the Mares Isotherm Semi-Dry suit that he's been talking about getting since last summer. Now as soon as I get something warmer we'll be ready to check out some more freshwater diving!

 

[Walter]

Pompano Beach, Florida - 1st dive: Wreck of the Captain Dan.
2nd dive: Turtle Ledge. 3rd dive: Copenhagen Wreck & Pompano Drop off.

DSSW,

WWW™

 

[SDAnderson]

Bonne Terre, Missouri - the Disneyland of cave diving...

Five dives over two days in an abandoned lead mine located beneath the bucolic hamlet of Bonne Terre. Not a bad dive - and definitely as good as it gets for quarry diving.

All dives are single tankers lead by guides, so don't plan on doing any exploring by yourself. Guides were uniformly well-informed (truly exceptional briefings) and pleasant to be with.

Water and air are 57F, year round, which is a little chilly. By the time you hike out of the mine you'll be grateful for the cool air in the mine.

This is an underground mine, so you might say it's all an overhead environment, but most of the dives are spent at less than 60ffw in areas that have air directly above them. You'll do some passages that are confined, but my claustrophobia never kicked in.

There are some very interesting formations to be seen. There are abandoned items like ore carts, trains, track and timber scattered pretty much everywhere and you're welcome to play with it. Because the mine was open and operating for so many years, there are also some pretty decent mineral formations in some areas. Flowstones (including a few stalagtite/stalagmite formations) and mineral crystals that look like what you'd expect in a cave - nice stuff.

Rustic became our watchword. If you go, don't expect much in the way of creature comforts. The facilities are primitive to ramshackle.

I'll go back.

 

[DiverInAk]

Well Walter, you have certainly made me jelous.

Ages, I thought they had Public Safety divers for that kind of work. I know a trooper here who was the dive officer for AST for a while. When I spoke to him about hooking up with a dive team he said you had to be employed by the State or other local government before they would use you. Maybe JPD is different?

Anyway, glad to see some of us got underwater, even the pool!

 

[VTWarrenG]

I did four shore dives from Breakwater Cove in Monterey, California. Air temps in the high 50's to low 60's, water temp 56F on the surface, 46F at 65 feet.

We found the coal barge! There's a 40-foot wooden coal barge used back in the 20's (I think) on the floor at 65 feet, about 200m almost straight north from the beach. We did some sector search patterns with a guideline and found the ol' wreck, then proceeded to make two more dives on it. What a thrill to go out and dive a wreck from the shore!

- Warren